Chapter One

      Karly turned the wipers to the highest setting, but they didn’t help much. She knew the ranchers in Clear Water, Texas, were celebrating after the long drought, but she just wanted to get to her new home without drowning.

      New home. If everything worked out the way she planned, her young son, Bryce, would be celebrating Christmas in a real home for the first time ever. Last Christmas they had been living in her car. At church, deacon Dub Childress had always made her feel welcome. Now he was recovering from a stroke and broken arm—and it was her turn to help him.

      On the huge plus side, if she could pull this off, no shelter or cheap hotel for them this year. But would she be able to care for Dub and his house? She didn’t even finish high school. Doing some research on stroke patients online might not be enough.

      Deep breath in...out. She made herself relax. This past year had brought so many changes, and with the help of her new church family, she was free of bad relationships. Hopefully no one expected her to cook. She could clean. She was very good at cleaning.

      The rain pounded the roof, making it hard to hear anything else. In the backseat, Bryce finally calmed down. Her five-year-old son hated storms—or any loud noise. She leaned forward, her knuckles white around the steering wheel. God had gotten them through worse storms.

      Glancing in the rearview mirror at her son, she continued the game. “Let me see. Is it your baby picture on my visor?”

      Kicking his feet against the passenger seat, Bryce grinned at her. His smile shone through the dark, dreary day. “Yes! Now it’s your turn.”

      “Okay...let me see... I spy something...blue and white.”

      Bryce gasped. Karly turned back to see what startled him. He pointed to the road in front of her.

      “Airplane.”

      Squinting to see through the heavy rain, she saw it, too. “No...” She blinked to clear the image, but it was still there. A small aircraft hovered over the road. The spinning blades on the nose of the plane headed straight for them. The wings tilted from one side to the other as if trying to balance on the air.

      Instinctively, she hit the brake and jerked to the right, taking them through a muddy ditch. The car bounced over the rocky terrain. Their seat belts were the only thing that kept them in place. The boxes and bags weren’t so lucky.

      After a hard stop just short of a barbed-wire fence, she looked back at Bryce, reaching for him, needing to touch him. “Are you okay?”

      He twisted in his booster seat, pulling himself around as far as the seat belt would let him go. “It’s an airplane.” He looked at her for a second before pointing around the overturned boxes in the back. “An airplane on the road.”

      Sure enough, the small airplane she had just lost a game of chicken to sat on the opposite side of the county road, tangled up in the tall game fence.

      Through the back window, in the gray, water-blurred scene, Karly saw a figure run toward them. She slowly filled her lungs, making every effort to breathe and stop the shaking of her hands. Eyes closed, she counted and relaxed each muscle.

       Thank You, God, for protecting us. Please get us to our new home safely.

      A tap on the window caused her to jump. A drenched man stood outside her car. Rolling the window down, she was hit with rain. She cupped a hand over her face and found Tyler Childress staring at her.

      Tyler pulled his leather jacket over his head to block her from the onslaught of rain. Leaning closer to her, he looked into the car. “Is everyone all right? I’m so sorry. Cattle were on the airstrip and I thought I could make it to the field, but the pressure came in low.”

      “We’re fine. A little shaken up, but fine. Tyler Childress, right?”

      “Oh, no.” He smiled—the smile she heard the women of Clear Water sigh over whenever they gossiped about the good-looking son of Dub Childress. Wild and impulsive, but good-looking as all get-out. This phrase was repeated often. “We didn’t go to school together, did we? I’m horrible with names.” The rain started dripping off the sides of his jacket.

      “No, we’ve never met. Why don’t you get in the car and out of the rain?”

      He gave a quick nod and ran in front of her car as she rolled up her window.

      Reaching across the seat, she pulled the lock up, then started stuffing bags and containers in the seat behind her. The off-road adventure had scattered their worldly possessions throughout the car. They would have to repack everything. Tyler slid into her ’97 Volvo wagon. The space got a lot smaller with his tall, well-built body. He looked like a pirate just rescued from a shipwreck.

      She focused on her hands. He was dangerous, the kind of man that could bring trouble to her new, safe world.

      Carefully tucking her leather-bound Bible into the console, she ran her fingertip along its spine. It was a gift from her church family at her baptism six months ago. The idea that she now had people who cared about her and Bryce still felt a bit surreal. And with this man now beside her, it was a good reminder.

      Dub’s son reminded her of all the bad choices she had made based on wanting to be rescued by a knight in shining armor. This job her pastor offered her was more than a way to repay kindness or even make money. It was an opportunity to make a stable future for her son. An opportunity she couldn’t afford to waste.

      Tyler adjusted himself in the passenger seat and slammed the door to the storm outside, his long legs not quite fitting. He looked too big for the small space, like a jack-in-the-box ready to pop out if someone pulled the roof open. Her car had a new scent now, a clean masculine fragrance.

      “Would you mind following me over to the county airport?” He pointed his perfect chin to the turnoff about fifty yards ahead of her.

      “Oh, sure.” Stop trying to smell him.

      “Thanks.”

      “Hi! I’m Bryce. I like your airplane!”

      Tyler turned and held out his hand to her son. “Hi, Bryce. I’m Tyler. Glad to meet you.”

      Karly tightened her lips, forcing herself not to say anything as she watched Childress’s reaction when he realized her son didn’t have a right hand to shake, only five unformed digits right below his elbow. Without hesitation he laid his hand flat, palm up, on his other hand. “Give me five? Hope I didn’t scare you.”

      “No, that was fun!” He leaned forward to slap their guest’s hand.

      Karly was a bit surprised by Bryce’s enthusiasm. Most of the time, he pulled back from men and he never wanted to meet someone new.

      She had to admit that Tyler’s nonreaction automatically bumped him up in her opinion no matter what everyone said about him. Bryce’s dad had taken one look at their son and walked out of the hospital and never came back. Of course, he had been a seventeen-year-old boy already scared of being a father.

      Tyler might be a late coming home, but she didn’t know his story and it wasn’t